Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities GREEN LANTERN

Wow, i've always liked carol. Hell, I even married a woman NAMED Carol, lol.

Yeah, there were some bad times for her character, but honestly, it was the writing at the time because entire stories were bad at those times, not just the characters.

First time i ever remember seeing her was the thanksgiving dinner with Hal, Ollie and Dinah. She rocked that dress and was a major hottie. Liked her ever since, dispite the bad storylines, marriage, kids and whatever.

Cowgirls cute, but Carol's the bee's knee's.

Don't be shy Blackula, let your voice be heard. We are the fans of Carol, and we shall unleash Uncle Space upon the non-believers!!!

It's amazing how that whole mess sticks out in my mind the way it does. Wein & Gibbons came up with this terrific character (hero? villain? what?) the Predator. But Len also had Carol give Hal the "ultimatum", and he was stupid enough to pick HER over the Corps. Then, because Dave wanted to do space stories, not dull boring Earthbound stories, he left... and Len decided, on a whim, "Hey, I think I'll leave, too!" Right on the MIDDLE of a story. (JUST as he had done when he broke up the F.F. That's some track-record...)

Steve Englehart decided it was time to "explain" (reconcile) DECADES of bad writing. With Fred Hembeck's help on research (it's true!) he succeeded admirably. EXCEPT... the one thing he did that had me shaking my head in dismay, was revealing that not only was Carol Star Saphire, she was also The Predator. WTF???

Frankly, I was happy to see her go. Arisia has long been my #1 favorite GL anyway.



It really says something for his die-hard determination that Gerard Jones, once he committed to straigthening out Hal's life (which had been REPEATEDLY F***** over by multiple writers & editors, ESPECIALLY Denny "drag 'em thru the mud" O'Neil), not only cured Carol of Star Saphire, he then, about a year-and-a-half later, "fixed" the ONE thing Steve Englehart did that I really DID NOT like. Wow! And THIS was the writer who got kicked off the book less than a year later because the new editor, Kevin Dooley, went POWER-MAD (it probably had something to do with Sinestro and some alien life-force corrupting the power battery-- heh).


Anyway, it blows my mind that GL of late has been one of the BEST-WRITTEN books from DC-- after decades of it being way the other way.

Prof, I don't know the circumstances of Len Wein's departure from GL, but I do know he exited Marvel altogether very abruptly and acrimoniously, hence his leaving FF and all his other books in mid-story. Breaks my heart that he didn't get to finish using all the Hulk's classic villains.

I just caught up with GL post-Sinestro Corps from the Alpha Lanterns thru Secret Origins and the Rage one-shot.

Wow! Alpha Lanterns was decent, but Geoff really knocked it out of the park with Origins! Though I will admit to slight dismay over Hal's history being revised again (fairly recently after Emerald Dawns I and II), it was a terrific story, and I liked the incorporating of Hector Hammond and Black Hand. It also made me wonder, though, how the origins of those two and Sinestro had played out originally.

Was Hammond altered by Abin's ship? How did Black Hand originally get his powers? When exactly was Sinestro revealed to have been an ex-GL? Was it before Emerald Dawn? And how was Hal originally indoctrinated into the Corps? (I'm fairly sure that only Abin appeared in the classic origin story.)

But the story was really excellent. I especially enjoyed the looks at Hal's childhood in the first part and the exploration of his father and his ties with Carl Ferris. For the record, I loved Carol here, too, and have always been a fan of hers except when the writers force Star Sapphire on her.

And, gawd, Ivan Reis's art was even more gorgeous here than it was during the Sinestro Corps War arc! Absolutely stunning! He and Geoff have just GOTTA stay together on GL forever!

Side note: haters of Emerald Dawn had to have been pleased with the omission of the drunk-driving stuff.

Still, Origin felt incomplete. I would've liked to see Sinestro's story continue, so we could see his downfall. Maybe that part of Emerald Dawn is still intact? For that matter, is there anyone with a good memory (or handy copies) who can delineate how much of Origin is consistent with ED and how much is contradicted?

As for Rage, this was a nice opening salvo in this latest chapter of the Lantern spectrum saga. I loved Shane Davis's art here a lot! In fact his Hal was really evocative of Neal Adams' Hal in a good way, I thought! Very attractive Cowgirl by Shane, as well! (Geoff really needs to develop her more if she's to compete with Carol in our hearts, though)

I'd like to see more of how the Reds differ from the Sinestro Corps, though. Yeah, they're more (supposedly righteously) angry while the Sinestros are more sadistic, but I'd like to see more delineation. Otherwise, it almost seems like they should be teaming up. I'm sure the rest of the arc will show this more, though. (Is GL 36 late?!?!)

It's a great time to be a GL fan! It's nothing less than the DCU's best title right now!

Lardy, Sinestro's history as a former GL was revealed in his very first appearance in GL #7 during the early Silver Age. I believe this is only the second time the Guardians of the Universe appeared. Sinestro also has allies in the Weaponers of Qward, who were a big recurring group of enemies for GL in his early days. From the beginning Sinestro was played up as a totalitarian despot type. Its actually a pretty cool story, I reccomend it if you can ever find it in its various forms of print.

Stealth wrote:
"Prof, I don't know the circumstances of Len Wein's departure from GL, but I do know he exited Marvel altogether very abruptly and acrimoniously, hence his leaving FF and all his other books in mid-story. Breaks my heart that he didn't get to finish using all the Hulk's classic villains."

Is THAT what it was? I know a LOT of people left Marvel "very abruptly and acrimnoniously". You'd think Jim Shooter was a "recruiter" for DC!

I just recall how he started a year-long story where the FF broke up, then left in the middle, and his buddy Marv had to finish it. Later, he did a story where Hal quit the GLC-- then left in the middle, and Steve Englehart had to finish it.

Oh well, at least he finished his 3-YEAR-long story in SPIDER-MAN!

I dunno, he seems to have had a better track record as an editor than writer...




EMERALD DAWN went thru at least 2 writers (and possibly 2 editors). Jim Owsley quit after only writing the 1st episode, because Andy Helfer replaced Denny O'Neil as editor. Gerard Jones came on as new writer, but, Keith Giffen did the layouts on those issues, so it's possible Jones had nothing to do with plotting them. You know, come to think of it, if I had to guess, I'D say the "drunk driving" thing was probably O'NEIL's idea!

I didn't like the whole insane idea of Hal being IN JAIL while being trained to be a GL-- seems like something's just "wrong" there, doesn't it? On the other hand, I did like the idea of Sinestro having the job of training him, and Hal finding out how the guy-- who was so revered among the Corps-- had been ABUSING his power, and it led to his downfall. It gave a real reason for his hatred of Hal, blaming HIM for the Guardians finding out about what he was up to.

In the long run, any fans who actually have complete runs of these characters are bound to me MORE confused than those who only read stories from certain periods!

What a spectacular book Green Lantern Corps is right now... I already rea Sinestro Corps War and was close to subscribing, but the storylines followig like Green Lantern Origin did not really sound intersting to me, so I decided to get on board when Blackest Night is starting.

Now this weekend, I read GLC #29 and 30 and... wow! I'm surprised how good those are! Just sent my subscription to my comic book shop, I'm in for the ride for both GL books. I love the stories, the teamwork, and I especially love the coloring. Now that all those colorful Lanterns are going to show up, the coloring is an extremely important variable to tell the story. And in GLC, they really know how to do it.

This is such a pleasant surprise after all the rubbish and pseudointellectual gibberish they have been putting out lately. Hopefully, Didio won't screw it up....

Give him time, my friend.


I occurs to me that as much as i love DC, i would never be able to write for it. After calling didio out on so many things, i think if they ever knew who i was they would likely shoot me

I started picking up GL with "Secret Origin" and now I'm hooked. I've always thought of Hal as the true Green Lantern of Sector 2814. So, now I'm going back and picking up tha back issues I missed (managed to find 8 issues in a 50 cents overstock bin).
Having read Chem's post above, and skimming most of the pages in this thread, I have some questions:
1) Are there any main, recurring characters in GLC?
2) Compared to GL, is it the same, or better?
3) Is it worth getting the back issues on it?

Opinions appreciated.

1) Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, Guy Gardner, and several new Lanterns, of which Soranik Natu (of Korugar) gets the most face time.

2) It's a lot more space opera than GL; the writing is more consistently good than GL, but the artwork is not as good as in GL.

3) Yes.

GLC is great, and its definitely worth getting the back issues. Both books are of excellent quality and different enough that they compliment each other quite well.

Having just started picking up GLC with the current storyline, I was wondering if it'll be worth it to pick up ALL the GLC trades going back to Recharge. A lot of the anecdotes I've heard seem to imply GLC is better under Tomasi than with Gibbons (while not specifically saying the Gibbons stuff was bad). Should I concentrate on the Tomasi stuff since there are so many trades across the board that I want to pick up? Thoughts?

Also, am I remembering right that there are now 2 GLs per sector (making it so each one has a "partner")?

Tomasi has been impressive thus far, but IMO Gibbons was equally impressive. I think its been top notch all the way through to be honest, so you can't go wrong with what you pick up.

And yeah, you got it right Lardy, now there are (2) GL's per sector, so each one has a partner. I especially like Soranik Natu's partner, and I loved Mogo's partner. Hal & John are the GL's of Earth's sector.

Guy & Kyle are a special type of Lantern above the rest. Guy is a 'trouble-shooter' Lantern with no partner or sector.

Also, Ion (Sodom Yat) and Arisia are paired up usually but I don't think they're officially partners. Arisia is keeping a watch on Sodom Yat while he adjuts to the Ion power.

One of my surprise favorite Green Lantern from GLC? Stel. This is the perfect series to find obscure favorites for, and they usually appear semi-regularly.

Dave Gibbons, going way back, has always been a better artist and storyteller than a writer. On GLC, the issues withy Patrick Gleason art were visually spectacular, but often, you could not tell what the heck you were looking at or what was going on. By comparison, any time Gibbons "filled in" on the art, the book was 10 TIMES better. The story where Guy Gardner went on vacation remains my favorite of the entire run.

Lardy, I suggest getting all the GLC trades including Recharge. There's not a bad story in the bunch.

And get the (Gibbons-written) Rann-Thanagar War trade, too, if you haven't read that.

Gibbons is a very underrated writer IMO.

Where was it explained what exactly an "ION" character is?

Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but, AFOB...the "Ion", I believe, is the keeper/host of the (for lack of a better word) avatar of the green energy. Similarly, Parallax is the host of the avatar of the yellow energy.

Is that essentially correct? Stealth, Cobester, etc.?

Yeah, that's pretty much correct.

Kyle Raynor became Ion because the Guardians see him as "The Keeper of the Flame" and (1) trusted him and (2) wanted to 'reward' him with this more serious duty. We finally learned all this in the Sinestro Corps special.

The Ion 'avatar'/entity now resides within Sodom Yat (the Daxamite Green Lantern) making him more powerful.

Of course the name comes from the Judd Winnick story several years ago (late 90's?). But essentially its now the green equivalent to the yellow Parallax.

Thanks guys!

I just now (finally!) got around to reading HARVEY KURTZMAN'S STRANGE ADVENTURES, an all-new collection of stories from him from 1990 which feature a variety of different artists (including himself), a sort of modern-day (for 1990) version of MAD magazine-- in hardcover on slick paper-- and one of the stories was "THE SUPER SURFER", with art by Dave Gibbons. In one scene, there's a whole slew of recognizable super-heroes all taking part in various contests, and among them, the entire cast of THE WATCHMEN! (How often is it that the artist of a book gets to also draw a parody of the same characters?)

Just got the latest GL, #36, and Ivan Reis continues to impress. This is some of his best work yet.

Possible spoilers, so be warned.

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Blue lantern? Somehow, i just can't see that for Hal. Green is always gonna be the bellweather for Lanterns. And Hal is the shitez.

Guy is that fun blockhead that you knew when you were a teenager and into trouble, mostly minor stuff that was made to seem the absolute horrible end by adults.

John...is the way to stuffy and overly serious.

Kyle...sorry, he's always gonna be a lightweight navel gazer to me.

And Alan...well, Alan is the first, the man outta time.

But Hal, Hal has that certain swagger, that right stuff quality that todays angst driven self-centered media just loves to belittle and wallow in.

Can't see him becoming the Blue. Gotta be Green!

Gotta agree about Hal. If there's one thing about him, he's got that "They said no. I am therefore going anyway" attitude. He then proceeds to wreak havoc and justice upon the bad guys.
I always heard blue as a color was used as a calming color, exuding tranquility and peace.

That ain't Hal Jordan.

While Ollie was always the provacatuer to me (I found him in the early JLA and O'Neil era stuff) Hal is the guy that will light a crap bomb and drop in the pile when he sees the need, a blunt instrument that forces results. And for all that, if folks go back and look, he is also pretty smart. Air Force pilots aren't stupid, not to pass the tests and get into the flight program.